Honda Fit Gets A Crossover Twist--But Only In South America

The Honda Fit is very good at a great many things, but off-roading isn't part of its wide pool of talents.

That's unlikely to change much even with the Honda Fit Twist, unveiled at the Sao Paulo Motor Show in Brazil--but Honda's intentions are along different lines.

As reported by Auto Express, Honda says that customers in Brazil prefer cars that "are a bit tougher".

Several other automakers have previous released body-kitted versions of their regular vehicles in Brazil. They might not go as far into the wilderness as a Jeep or Land Rover, but raised ride heights and chunky plastic body additions are quite suited to the urban jungle.

The Fit Twist incorporates plastic cladding on the sides, a chrome grille and a new bumper design, to toughen up the looks.

Honda has left the suspension alone though, unlike some other carmakers. They were concerned about spoiling the nimble handling enjoyed by Fit customers, so the Twist features visual changes alone.

That means it's the same under the hood too, with a 1.5-liter i-VTEC engine, producing 115 horsepower. In the U.S, combined mileage is 31 mpg, so the Fit Twist is likely to be similar.

Well, it would be, except the Twist is Brazilian-market only, and Honda has no plans to sell it in North America. But we could see a future Fit Twist, perhaps with better gas mileage, being quite a popular option in the U.S. as consumers look to downsize.

The Fit Twist's plastic cladding on the sides, a chrome grille sound similar to that on Fit EV in USA?

Antony
Posted: 10/23/2012 11:18am PDT

The Fit EV features slightly different plastic appendages from the regular Fit, but as you can see from the Twist images above, this version is going for a much more off-road inspired look than the fairly simple Fit EV. You're right about the grille though, it looks very similar.